Historic Saugatuck Chair

Now Lives in Connecticut

-Contributed by Chris Yoder

The Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society has an Image Blog on its web site which lets people look at some of the photos in its holdings and comment on their content. Imagine his surprise when Bob Erickson of Cheshire, CT, recognized a chair that has been in his family for most of the last century and now sits in his condo!

There it was, a wicker photographer bench in a old photo of Saugatuck lighthouse keeper Charles Baker and his wife. The photographer was identified as Baker, Saugatuck, Mich. A little historical sleuthing in the on-line Commercial Records revealed that photographer William Baker opened for business on April 20, 1899, in the Miller Robinson building, on the southwest Corner of the Saugatuck town square. He returned in 1905 to take photos over the summer season, again in the Robinson building. As the chair also appears in a 1901 baby photo of Douglass Bryan (uncle of Bob), I assume that it may have been a part of the Robinson studio furnishings at that time.

Mr. & Mrs. George Baker 1899 Commercial Record Ad

Bob writes:

That Photographer's Bench (now in our condo) I believe was (later) in the Simonson Photo Studio. I remember the studio being along the north side of Culver Street running east from the Town Hall to the building that housed the Town Garage. The welding shop of my dad (A.G.E Weld & Repair) was just around that corner. (Note: His parents were George and Lillian (Bryan) Erickson of Saugatuck. In the summer of 1906, Herman Simonson finished his training at the Illinois College of Photography and opened his studio in July. The building Bob describes has more recently been home of The Loaf and Mug.)

I believe that Simonson was an nth cousin to my grandmother Ellen Serena (Olsen) Bryan. When that photography style went out of favor, the bench ended up in the Bryan's Rosemont Resort. As a boy, I vaguely remember it sitting in the parlor. After my grandmother's death, my aunt Nellie (Bryan) Howlett claimed it. It came to my parents when Nellie moved in with them, and to us when I sold Lillian's Saugatuck residence at 331 Grand St. The Bench is in remarkably good shape. We brought it here in 1986 with a few other pieces of furniture.

The Photographer Bench Today

Saugatuck folks may move away, but they carry their memories along with them, and sometimes a grand old chair.

Browse through the SDHS Historic Photo Blog yourself at: http://sdhistoricalsociety.org/ . You can read the old Commercial Records through this site. Any questions contact Chris Yoder at cyoder@tds.net .